Blank Question..

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Hey everyone...
I recent topic was brought up between a few friends of mine... If I got shot with a blank, would it hurt? I know blanks don't shoot anything, but I think that it would still hurt or can be dangerous.. maybe i'm wrong... can anyone fill me in?

No, there was an actor from the TV show "Cover Up" who put a gun with a blank to his head and pulled the trigger. He was drunk, on a boat dock or something, and killed himself. This was in the late 1980s.

I think the Bruce Lee son thing was a bit different. I forget the details, but the blank was not made correctly, or there was something still in the barrel that got pushed out by the blank. Something like that.

Dude, I would not have anyone shooting at U w/ anything. Especially not at a close distance.

Death or serious injury

from Wikipedia:

Safety
Given the explosiveness of blank cartridges, they are by no means safe. While blanks do not contain bullets, they often contain a paper or plastic plug that seals the powder in the case, called a wad (a term derived from shotgun shells). This wad can cause bruising at medium ranges and severe penetrating wounds at close range. There is also a great deal of hot, expanding gas that comes out of the muzzle of the gun when a blank round is fired. Exposure to this gas can cause grievous injuries (see powerhead for an example where this is used). In addition if there is any debris in the barrel (for example stones in the far end) it will be expelled at a similar velocity to a bullet, with similar capability for harm. Actors in particular are at serious risk of injury from blank cartridges used on movie sets. Actors Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum were both killed in accidents involving blank cartridges; Lee was killed by an old cartridge fragment lodged in the gun, while Hexum died when a wad penetrated his skull. The explosion alone can cause damage to the eardrum.

This seems almost like a "troll" question. Especially on a first time poster...

Hmmmm ..... good point Denny.

Originally Posted by Shipwreck

I think the Bruce Lee son thing was a bit different. I forget the details, but the blank was not made correctly, or there was something still in the barrel that got pushed out by the blank. Something like that.

I think you're right Ship. If I remember correctly, they were filming the final scene of The Crow (where he gets shot a gazillion times) and there was something in the barrel and he got "shot" with whatever the debris was and died.

No, there was an actor from the TV show "Cover Up" who put a gun with a blank to his head and pulled the trigger. He was drunk, on a boat dock or something, and killed himself. This was in the late 1980s.

John Eric Hexum was his name, suffered skull fractures from the concussive force..

I thought about the Brandon Lee incident too but after I read what happened I didn’t thing It fit this topic. Here is an article I found on it. The weird thing about his death is it was the way his father dies in the movie, “Game of Death”- sorta.

Behind the Death of Brandon Lee
Small mistakes lead to big tragedy on a film set
by Dave Brown

Two weeks before he was due to be married, actor Brandon Lee was killed on the North Carolina set of the motion picture "The Crow." A scene in the movie called for Lee to enter a room where actor Michael Massee was to shoot him using a revolver loaded with blanks. When the handgun was fired, a real projectile penetrated Lee's abdomen and lodged next to his vertebrae. He was rushed to hospital but died in the operating room.

An investigation into his death revealed that the handgun had previously been loaded with "dummy" cartridges for an earlier scene. (A dummy cartridge is a fake cartridge with a bullet but no gunpowder). To make the dummies for this production, real cartridges were purchased from a local gun shop, the bullets removed, the gunpowder dumped out and the bullets reinserted into the empty cases.

Although this was a dangerous practice, the inexperienced crew simply did what they thought best under the pressure of both time and budget.

According to the investigation, the handgun was loaded with these dummy cartridges on a previous night and one of the bullets became accidentally lodged in the barrel. How it got stuck there was never conclusively proven, but some witnesses stated they saw an actor playing with the gun and pulling the trigger. This would have discharged one of the primers and propelled the bullet slightly forward. The primer is a simple sparking cap and is designed to initiate the ignition of the gunpowder when struck by the firing pin. If there is no gunpowder to ignite, the spark of the primer has enough energy to propel the bullet forward an inch or two. Unfortunately, there is little or no noise resulting from a primer ignition without gunpowder, which is why this situation is often refered to as a "primer pop," and is immediately familiar to anyone with experience in real firearms.

On the night of Lee's death on March 31, 1993, no one thought to first check the barrel for obstructions before loading the firearm with blanks. A blank has more gunpowder than an actual cartridge in order to create the bright flash out the muzzle. The gun was loaded with blanks, pointed directly at Brandon Lee and fired. He immediately collapsed, although it took a few seconds for the crew to realize he had been hurt. He was rushed to the hospital and died 13 hours later.

The weapons specialist on the set had been sent home earlier that evening to save money, leaving a props assistant in charge of the firearm.

Brandon Lee's mother sued the production company for negligence, and eventually won an undisclosed settlement. No criminal charges were laid and actor Michael Massee was deemed not responsible for Lee's death.

A chain of errors, ill-advised cost cutting measures, lack of adequate supervision, inexperience and pressure to finish a scene quickly all led to the death of a promising young actor. The production probably saved about $100 by sending the weapons specialist home early that night.

I once had the honor of being spending a few weeks on Marine burial duty, in which we would always honor the departed with the traditional twenty-one gun salute. Of course we used blanks in the M14's, but we were instructed that even though they were blanks, they were still quite lethal up to 30 feet or more.

I am suspect of the question. I think the point of it was to get everyone to waste their time on this thread. Granted - good points on gun safety. But I think this is a troll question, personally. His 1st post, and the guy has yet to come back and comment.